Lateral Sparks, the weekly quiz from YourStory, tests your domain knowledge, business acumen, and lateral thinking skills (see the previous edition here). In this 202nd edition of the quiz, we present issues tackled by real-life entrepreneurs in their startup journeys.
What would you do if you were in their shoes? At the end of the quiz, you will find out what the entrepreneurs and innovators themselves actually did. Would you do things differently?
Check out YourStory’s Book Review section as well, with takeaways from over 355 titles on creativity and entrepreneurship, and our weekend PhotoSparks section on creativity in the arts.
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Q1: Logistics
The logistics sector suffers from fragmented networks and problems in last-mile delivery. This leads to cascading costs, extra fees, frustrated customers, and lower brand loyalty. How can these challenges be addressed?
Q2: Fintech impact
Many consumers would like to benefit from financial advisory services in order to attain financial freedom. But many such services focus largely on analysing transactional data. What are other ways to unearth more insights and offer better advice?
Q3: Data insights
Despite advanced data infrastructure, many managers waste precious hours in lost productivity while struggling to get reliable, contextual insights from their structured data. How can technology help here?
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Q4: Creator economy
The rise of the creator economy offers valuable opportunities for creative professionals, but they also face challenges in getting high-quality equipment without incurring high costs. Where is the entrepreneurial opportunity here?
Q5: Web-based applications
Website and app development continues to pose problems for aspiring non-tech managers and entrepreneurs, due to high costs and fragmented support infrastructure. What are some possible solutions here?
Answers!
Congratulations on having come this far! But there’s more to come – answers to these five questions (below), as well as links to articles with more details on the entrepreneurs’ solutions. Happy reading, happy learning – and happy creating!
A1: Logistics
A number of startups are offering creative solutions to tackle logistics problems, such as Shipfast’s aggregation of leading national and local third-party logistics providers in each region. Shiprocket Copilot has an AI-powered virtual assistant with chat-based interfaces to guide sellers through everyday tasks, offering features like live package tracking.
Shipway offers automated confirmation for cash-on-delivery orders, address verification before dispatch, and WhatsApp-based systems to correct deliveries in real time. Read more here about ClickPost’s AI-powered solutions to predict potential issues before they happen, and its use of personalised nudges for better customer actions.
A2: Fintech impact
Founded by Harsh Gahlaut and Mayank Bhatnagar, FinEdge is a wealth management company that gives better financial advice to clients. It leverages AI to understand conversations and manage relationships over the long term.
Its hybrid product, called Dreams into Action (DiA), focuses on behavioural investing, helping clients stay disciplined and avoid emotionally-driven financial decisions. Read more here about how it has close to 20,000 clients across 90 cities in India and overseas.
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A3: Data insights
The startup Genloop, from Netapp Excellerator’s 14th Cohort, is helping business users rapidly get reliable, contextual insights from their structured data in natural language. Valuable insights are freed from technical complexity, and managers need not rely on data teams for even routine questions.
Genloop has developed personalised large language models (LLMs) trained on the client’s business logic, data patterns, and terminology. Read more here about how enterprises benefit from embedding context-aware AI into their workflows to accelerate decisions, surface insights earlier, and empower every team to act on data.
A4: Creator economy
High-end microphones, gimbals, backdrops, ring lights, and reflectors are used by accomplished professionals in the photography and film industries. Founded by Archisman Misra, StudioBackdrops.com aims to empower creators across the board with broader access to professional studio equipment for producing high-quality content.
It offers over 6,500 SKUs such as lighting equipment, audio tools, studio gear, and paper backdrops. Read more here about how it also encourages creators to showcase their work and produces tutorials to help users build studios and create professional content.
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A5: Web-based applications
Founded by Prakash Sanker, Launch offers natural language workflows, smooth integrations, and real human support. Its full-stack AI development platform builds web-based applications such as websites, web apps, and progressive web apps.
“Our goal is to remove coding as a barrier,” Sanker explains. Read more here about how the platform has onboarded more than 2,000 early adopters in over 10 countries, with demonstrated impact in lowering time and cost to create ecommerce websites.
YourStory has also published the pocketbook ‘Proverbs and Quotes for Entrepreneurs: A World of Inspiration for Startups’ as a creative and motivational guide for innovators (downloadable as apps here: Apple, Android).
